dan.gheorghe
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2010
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The Hobby: An Unexpected Journey
Few years ago, when I was still a student, but already had a job, few responsibilities an few expenses, I found myself with some spare money for myself.
I forgot to tell you, but I am little tech freak even since 5th grade when my parents bought me my first PC. In 7th grade I overclocked my computer without knowing that what I did was called overclocking I was looking into the motherboards' manual and I've seen that you could change the settings (fsb, clock and voltage). I said to myself....what a wonderful world...
), and I thought that I could brake the half ghz "barrier" ( had a 450 mhz amd k6 II ). Changed the clock from 4.5 (x100) to 5 x 100. I received a blue screen after a while. Hmm...for being faster it may need more voltage, and so, without my father knowing I found the stable version. Since then I was obsessed about getting the most of my computer, and having good components.
Ok, enough about that. Where were we?
Ah... So I had some spare money to buy myself a toy
. I already upgraded my computers a few months earlier, already had a "good" Technics SH-580 Sound System, but my "expensive" Sennheiser cx300 (40$) broke. I kept seeing adds with 7.1 Logitech headphones and I was thinking of buying a pair of those.
One night I contacted a good friend of mine, George Dinca, on messenger. We got into gadget talk as usual, and, at one point, I tolled him of my decision of buying a new pair of 7.1 headphones. It was then, I found that he was into this hobby that i knew nothing about. He convinced me that those 7.1 headphones are good for nothing and he made me look at the Sennheiser HD595. I was shocked. 200$ for a pair of headphones?? What could they do to deserve so much money?? Was he nuts?
He then told me he intended to buy a pair of Sennheiser HD800 and a Meier Symphony 2 (dac/amp ) from meier audio, in total of a little over 2k$. I was shocked. I was like : "Dude....are you crazy?".
Then I started reading reviews on hd595 and HD555. I read that the differences were not so big between the 2, and the 555 was half the price.
I decided to go with the 555.
Looked for the Sennheiser dealer from Bucharest and went the next day directly to the store. They did not have the 555. I was sad...I wanted my new toy
) . They said they had the 545 and 595 and that I can listen both. I was thinking... ok ...i will listen to both, but will not get the 595 ( what can it do for the money ).
They plugged the headphones into a laptop and started listening to 545. I was like....ok...interesting, let's see the 595. I put them on and was shocked. The differences were huge to my ears. Much bigger soundstage, mode details (but at that time, I think the soundstage impressed me the most). I looked at the salesman and said :
Shut up and take my money
That was the first time in my life I have heard sound of such good quality. It trumped every computer system I heard, my technics sound system, and any headphone I heard to that date ( I think my most expensive headphone I listened to until then was 20$).
I was really happy with my new toy, even though i was not planning to spend so much money on it.
Went home and plugged them in my Creative Extreme Audio sound card and started listening to my mp3s. I rediscovered all my music.
Every day I started appreciating the sound better and better.
Went on messenger again and started speaking with George again. Told him about my new pair of headphones and how happy I was with them.
After a while he started to explain to me that even though the headphones only had 50 ohms, they will still benefit from a headphone amplifier. I was then again shocked. "What? An amplifier just for the headphones? What is this madness? ".
"Dude trust me! They will take the sound to another level!".
I started looking for headphone amplifiers. That is when I wrote my first post on headfi .
The first response I got was "Welcome to headfi and we are sorry for your wallet!".
I was a little bit surprised. "What was this guy talking about?" . It didn't take long for me to find out. At that time, in Romania I did not find anything on the market that would interest me. I was thinking of spending a maximum amount of 200$. After a month of reading reviews and posts on headfi and talking with George, I found out about Meiers' amplifiers.
I ended up spending 500$ on a Meier Cantate 2 amplifier (and dac).

I was really impressed of its' looks, built quality and sound improvements. I started to notice a deeper and more controlled bass, better details, and from what I remember a wider soundstage.
I was already hooked up into reading reviews and posts on headfi about headphones and amplifiers, so I kept at it. I found out quickly that my headphones did not bring the most out of my new amplifier. Guess what? I started looking for other headphones, ones that would be a better match for my new Cantate 2. This is how I met Darku (Sandu Vitalie), and actually became good friends
, but this is another story, for another post .
Next:
I'm going to write here my little story about how I got into this hobby and High-end. Every post will contain one or more stories that lead me to this point in time.
You can also find all of this on my blog: HeadMania.
I encourage everybody to tell us their brief story about how they got into this hobby.
Contents:
The Hobby: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobby: The Desolation of my wallet
The Hobby: There And Back Again
The fellowship of the Broken Wallets
The fellowship of the Broken Wallets: Part 2
The Two Titans: HD800 & LCD2
The Return Of The King
Burson Conductor: Ambush of the Wallet
The End of The Wallet: AKG K550, Creative Aurvana Live & FIIO E17
InToxicated Mind
Wrath of the Titans: Audeze LCD2 vs LCD3 & Burson Conductor vs M2Tech Vaughan
From Hobby to Obssesion and back to Hobby
The Ambush of the combos: AudioQuest Dragonfly vs FIIO E17 & Dragonfly with Burson Soloist; Dragonfly vs Conductor's DAC
The Ambush Continues: AKG K550 vs Sennheiser Momentum
The Audiophile USB Cable Surprise: Wireworld Starlight Red vs Chord USB Silver Plus
The Titans are Back: Sennheiser HD800 vs Audeze LCD2 & Burson Conductor
A nice surprise: Focal Spirit One
AudioPhile Power Cables Shootout
Focal Spirit One vs Sennheiser Amperior
Audeze LCD2 Aftermarket cable: Toxic Silver Widow
IEM Shoothout
The Amazing Sennheiser IE800
The Spectacular Sennheiser HD800
A Wonderful trip down memory lane
The Little Black Box: Arcam rPac
The King of Musicality: Audeze LCD3
Bakoon HPA-21 Review
The Sexy Martin Logan Mikros 90 Review
The Extinct Denon D7000
MSB Analog Dac - Review
New Burson 1793 DAC PCB Review
Creek OBH-21 Review
SimAudio Moon Evolution 650D - DAC Review
FiiO E12 Mont Blanc - Review
FiiO X3 - Review
Chord Signature USB - Review
Audeze LCD-X Review
Audeze LCD-X vs Sennheise HD800
Audiophile and Proud
Focal Spirit Classic & Spirit Professional - Review
I encourage everybody to tell us their brief story about how they got into this hobby.
Subscribe
Few years ago, when I was still a student, but already had a job, few responsibilities an few expenses, I found myself with some spare money for myself.
I forgot to tell you, but I am little tech freak even since 5th grade when my parents bought me my first PC. In 7th grade I overclocked my computer without knowing that what I did was called overclocking I was looking into the motherboards' manual and I've seen that you could change the settings (fsb, clock and voltage). I said to myself....what a wonderful world...

Ok, enough about that. Where were we?
Ah... So I had some spare money to buy myself a toy
One night I contacted a good friend of mine, George Dinca, on messenger. We got into gadget talk as usual, and, at one point, I tolled him of my decision of buying a new pair of 7.1 headphones. It was then, I found that he was into this hobby that i knew nothing about. He convinced me that those 7.1 headphones are good for nothing and he made me look at the Sennheiser HD595. I was shocked. 200$ for a pair of headphones?? What could they do to deserve so much money?? Was he nuts?
He then told me he intended to buy a pair of Sennheiser HD800 and a Meier Symphony 2 (dac/amp ) from meier audio, in total of a little over 2k$. I was shocked. I was like : "Dude....are you crazy?".
Then I started reading reviews on hd595 and HD555. I read that the differences were not so big between the 2, and the 555 was half the price.
I decided to go with the 555.
Looked for the Sennheiser dealer from Bucharest and went the next day directly to the store. They did not have the 555. I was sad...I wanted my new toy

They plugged the headphones into a laptop and started listening to 545. I was like....ok...interesting, let's see the 595. I put them on and was shocked. The differences were huge to my ears. Much bigger soundstage, mode details (but at that time, I think the soundstage impressed me the most). I looked at the salesman and said :

Shut up and take my money
That was the first time in my life I have heard sound of such good quality. It trumped every computer system I heard, my technics sound system, and any headphone I heard to that date ( I think my most expensive headphone I listened to until then was 20$).
I was really happy with my new toy, even though i was not planning to spend so much money on it.
Went home and plugged them in my Creative Extreme Audio sound card and started listening to my mp3s. I rediscovered all my music.
Every day I started appreciating the sound better and better.
Went on messenger again and started speaking with George again. Told him about my new pair of headphones and how happy I was with them.
After a while he started to explain to me that even though the headphones only had 50 ohms, they will still benefit from a headphone amplifier. I was then again shocked. "What? An amplifier just for the headphones? What is this madness? ".
"Dude trust me! They will take the sound to another level!".
I started looking for headphone amplifiers. That is when I wrote my first post on headfi .
The first response I got was "Welcome to headfi and we are sorry for your wallet!".
I was a little bit surprised. "What was this guy talking about?" . It didn't take long for me to find out. At that time, in Romania I did not find anything on the market that would interest me. I was thinking of spending a maximum amount of 200$. After a month of reading reviews and posts on headfi and talking with George, I found out about Meiers' amplifiers.
I ended up spending 500$ on a Meier Cantate 2 amplifier (and dac).

I was really impressed of its' looks, built quality and sound improvements. I started to notice a deeper and more controlled bass, better details, and from what I remember a wider soundstage.
I was already hooked up into reading reviews and posts on headfi about headphones and amplifiers, so I kept at it. I found out quickly that my headphones did not bring the most out of my new amplifier. Guess what? I started looking for other headphones, ones that would be a better match for my new Cantate 2. This is how I met Darku (Sandu Vitalie), and actually became good friends
Next:
I'm going to write here my little story about how I got into this hobby and High-end. Every post will contain one or more stories that lead me to this point in time.
You can also find all of this on my blog: HeadMania.
I encourage everybody to tell us their brief story about how they got into this hobby.
Contents:
The Hobby: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobby: The Desolation of my wallet
The Hobby: There And Back Again
The fellowship of the Broken Wallets
The fellowship of the Broken Wallets: Part 2
The Two Titans: HD800 & LCD2
The Return Of The King
Burson Conductor: Ambush of the Wallet
The End of The Wallet: AKG K550, Creative Aurvana Live & FIIO E17
InToxicated Mind
Wrath of the Titans: Audeze LCD2 vs LCD3 & Burson Conductor vs M2Tech Vaughan
From Hobby to Obssesion and back to Hobby
The Ambush of the combos: AudioQuest Dragonfly vs FIIO E17 & Dragonfly with Burson Soloist; Dragonfly vs Conductor's DAC
The Ambush Continues: AKG K550 vs Sennheiser Momentum
The Audiophile USB Cable Surprise: Wireworld Starlight Red vs Chord USB Silver Plus
The Titans are Back: Sennheiser HD800 vs Audeze LCD2 & Burson Conductor
A nice surprise: Focal Spirit One
AudioPhile Power Cables Shootout
Focal Spirit One vs Sennheiser Amperior
Audeze LCD2 Aftermarket cable: Toxic Silver Widow
IEM Shoothout
The Amazing Sennheiser IE800
The Spectacular Sennheiser HD800
A Wonderful trip down memory lane
The Little Black Box: Arcam rPac
The King of Musicality: Audeze LCD3
Audiobyte Hydra: High-End USB interface
Naim DAC-V1 ReviewBakoon HPA-21 Review
The Sexy Martin Logan Mikros 90 Review
The Extinct Denon D7000
MSB Analog Dac - Review
New Burson 1793 DAC PCB Review
Creek OBH-21 Review
SimAudio Moon Evolution 650D - DAC Review
FiiO E12 Mont Blanc - Review
FiiO X3 - Review
Chord Signature USB - Review
Audeze LCD-X Review
Audeze LCD-X vs Sennheise HD800
Audiophile and Proud
Focal Spirit Classic & Spirit Professional - Review
I encourage everybody to tell us their brief story about how they got into this hobby.
Subscribe